The lay of the land
The atmosphere in the studio was exciting and positive. We were joined by Taylor, Joe and Katie, the Hazelwick students, who travelled by train to Moulsecoomb. We introduced ourselves and I found them to be friendly and buzzing with energy.
Presentation by Dr Poorang and Mr. Noel Painting in the M21 Cockcroft studio (Smita, 2016)
The opening presentation by Dr Poorang and Mr. Noel Painting outlined the design brief and the duo went on to show us chosen precedent examples from around the world to manifest our task. Our group was to design a pedestrian and cyclist bridge linking the two sides of the Moulsecoomb Campus for the University of Brighton. The design brief challenged us to design a creative, innovative, flexible, safe, sustainable and secure bridge design which would most importantly be functional!
A site visit was scheduled after the opening presentation and we put on our hi-vizs to address health and safety as we would be walking down the busy Lewes road across to Mithras House. Site visits help kick-start the process of imagination and the visualization of a building or structure that does not exist, in the location where it will be built in the future. Guess this is an ability that designers master over years of learning and experience!
360° Panoramic view of the site from Mithras House side showing Preston Barracks site across the road and Watts and Cockcroft buildings to the far right (Smita, 2016)
View of the Mithras House car parking lots at two different levels (Smita, 2016)
Group walking back to the studio after the site visit (Smita, 2016)
During lunchtime I went over the design brief one more time with the team to make sure everybody understood it and answered some project related questions that the team asked. This was a good time to assign tasks to the Hazelwick students. I asked them to (a) undertake at least one precedent study each explaining in detail what kind of information must be gathered and (b) come up with a sketch of what they think our bridge must look like. All this was to be co-ordinated through email as these students would not be available for day 2. Lunch hour was followed by an introduction to Edu-blog by Marion and Jayson from our IT department, as we all were to independently maintain a blog to document our daily activities and learning.
Dr Pierfrancesco Cacciola during his presentation on ‘Structures and Footbridges’ (Smita, 2016)
Dr Pierfrancesco Cacciola, assistant head of SET school and with a PhD in Structural Engineering, enlightened us with the basics of structural design in buildings with his presentation. The Hazelwick students left soon after this as they had to catch a train to get back.
An induction session by Dr Poorang to the modelling studio in the Heavy Engineering Department followed. Safety briefing was done that made us aware of the workspace rules and safety measures. We were introduced to the material and tools that would be at our disposal over the next four days. Any additional material required would be procured by us and the university would reimburse for the purchase of a maximum of £20.
By 4:00 pm the presentations and induction sessions came to an end and marked the beginning of our concept designs. Both Damian and I sat together and assimilated and processed the information that was provided to us since the start of the day. We looked up many bridge examples that were shown in the presentations and some more.
The ones that particularly interested us were 1. Forth Bridge, Edinburgh, 2. Millau Viaduct, France, 3. The Kingsgate footbridge, Durham, and 4. London Millennium Footbridge, London.
Forth Bridge, Edinburgh: A Scottish icon that is recognised the world over as the most famous of cantilever designs. The world’s first major steel structure and longest cantilever bridge. (Forth Bridges Forum, 2015)
The Millau Viaduct, France: A cable-stayed, masted structure with the highest pylons in the world, the highest road bridge deck in Europe (Foster & Partners, 2004)
Kingsgate Footbridge Bridge, Durham: The bridge was cast in two cantilevered halves and rotated out from the river banks. Total span 106.7m (Arup, 2015)
London Millennium Footbridge: Two Y-shaped armatures support eight cables that run along the sides of the 4-metre-wide deck, while steel transverse arms clamp on to the cables at 8-metre intervals to support the deck (Foster & Partners, 2000)
Having gathered enough information from precedent studies and equipped with a basic idea of the behaviour of structural elements we parted ways to go home and give shape to the grand ideas hatching in our minds! Damian looked visibly excited as bountiful bridge design ideas came to him! That evening I sketched out what was till then only a concept in my mind.
Highlights and learning from Day 1
The introduction by Dr Poorang and Mr. Noel Painting did not just outline the design brief, it provided useful and important information on bridge design that was relevant to our project. Similarly, the lecture presentation by Dr Cacciola was particularly helpful to the 6th form Hazelwick students who had no exposure to the knowledge of building structures.
The site visit helped in giving a direction towards actualization of the project. It is important to ‘feel’ and understand the geography, geology and local architecture of the site before introducing a new built form into it.
Precedent studies help to determine the suitability of a design both in terms of form and structure. They also provide a good start to the thought process.
Although Hazelwick students were not joining us the next day, we decided to keep in touch via emails. Technology plays an important role in today’s world and provides seamless communication.